When does beach suncup bloom in California?

Most often in July. Across 634 dated, research-grade observations of Camissoniopsis cheiranthifolia in California, the flowering season runs roughly January to December.

Peak July In flower 634 Examined 681 State California

Flowering 634 in flower of 681 examined

79%

86%

91%

97%

96%

98%

83%

84%

89%

Proportion of examined Camissoniopsis cheiranthifolia in California in flower, by month
Month	In flower	Examined	Share	95% interval
Jan	26	33	79%	62% to 89%
Feb	31	36	86%	71% to 94%
Mar	50	55	91%	80% to 96%
Apr	112	115	97%	93% to 99%
May	76	79	96%	89% to 99%
Jun	78	80	98%	91% to 99%
Jul	62	63	98%	92% to 100%
Aug	46	47	98%	89% to 100%
Sep	44	45	98%	88% to 100%
Oct	35	42	83%	69% to 92%
Nov	41	49	84%	71% to 91%
Dec	33	37	89%	75% to 96%

Peak flowering in Jul. Each bar is the share of Camissoniopsis cheiranthifolia in California observations in which someone actually recorded the reproductive state and found the plant in flower, not the raw number of flowering records. That distinction matters: people observe plants far more in spring than in winter, so a bare count of flowering records partly measures when people go outside. Dividing by the number examined removes that. 634 of 681 examined observations were in flower, every one of them research grade. The whisker on each bar is a 95% Wilson interval. This is still a global aggregate and not a forecast for your garden: the same species flowers on different dates in different hemispheres. Where a species has fewer than 30 flowering records we do not draw this chart at all. Computed from 10.15468/dl.wt38fd.

What this is, and what it is not

This is a record of when people in California found Camissoniopsis cheiranthifolia in flower, not a forecast. It is computed only from observations made in California, so it is not the species’ global average dragged onto a map: the same plant flowers on different dates in different places, and that is the entire point of the page.

It will not tell you what your particular plant will do this year. Bloom time moves with the season, with altitude, and with the weather, and a warm February pulls everything forward. We publish the distribution and the sample size, and we refuse to draw a month that too few people examined.

The plant

Camissoniopsis cheiranthifolia

beach suncup

Sourcesevery claim on this page

GBIF (iNaturalist Research-grade Observations). Dated flowering annotations in California. Every record achieved iNaturalist quality grade Research, which is applied upstream at export. 10.15468/dl.wt38fd. Retrieved 2026-07-14.
World Flora Online Plant List. The accepted name. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.